MY VERY OWN GOLDEN GLOBE

A few weeks ago, I popped into Goodwill on my way home from the gym.

I almost always head to the lamp aisle first.  I have a whole regular route to be quite honest.

But back to the lamps....My eyes immediately fell upon a beautiful golden globe lamp. 

Ha, you thought I won some big award, didn't you?  Hardly - I can't sing, I can't act, 

heck, I can't even snap my fingers properly.  Again, back to the lamp.....

How could I pass this up?  

You won't believe me when I tell you I only paid $10 for it.

IT'S TRUE, I promise. 

And I picked up the shade at my local grocery store for $12.99.

That's right, you can get a gallon of milk and the perfect drum shade at my Kroger. 

Here's the thing, in order to find great things at thrift shops, you have to go often. 

I never set out to go thrifting, I just quickly stop in a few of my favorite stores when I'm close by.  Rarely do I ever go out of my way to thrift. 

I am planning a post on thrifting for next week. 

Stay tuned.

Oh, and I prefer to call it treasure hunting, seems classier, don't you think?

Are you a treasure hunter?

MY LOVE FOR LIGHTING

I was looking through my I-phone pictures today and noticed that other than pictures 

of my kids and my dog, most of the other pictures I had taken were of lighting. 

First stop, Crate and Barrel.....

I liked this fixture, and even contemplated using it "The Nook".

I ended up being resourceful and using a light I already had.

Next stop, Tuesday Morning....

Tuesday Morning is beginning to be one of my regular stops when searching for lamps.

They have a great selection and their prices can't be beat.

 I loved the texture of this one...

Moving on, to Ballard Design Outlet.....

I tried to talk my friend into using this in her home.

No dice, but someone should snatch this up.

There happens to be a grungy old lighting store just a few miles from my house.

I pop in every now and then to see what they have. 

It's jammed pack full of antique and vintage lighting. 

I was drooling over these alabaster lamps. 

The store is a bit overwhelming.  

You can barely walk through there without stepping on or hitting your head on lighting.

It's like a treasure hunt - right up my alley! 

I got brave and ventured into the back room on my last visit. 

It was filthy and jammed pack with treasures, like this lantern. 

It is covered in black soot, but underneath is a beautiful brass finish. 

Last week, a friend and I took a little field trip to Palette Studio in Cincinnati. 

Their website does not do them justice. 

It was like being in lamp heaven.  

These emerald green lamps caught my attention right away.

So did the price tag, $459 each.  Yikes!  

That's a far cry from my $8 emerald green thrift store lamps.

You know I love thrifting for lamps, but I was tempted to let my entire family 

eat cereal for a month so these beauties could come home with me. 

Kidding, kind of. 

I snapped a picture of the lampshade storage room.

Gorgeous lampshades as far as the eye could see!

I came across another lovely lamp at Goodwill a few weeks back.  

I just can't leave a good lamp behind.

I'll show you tomorrow.

THRIFTY TRAYS

As I was doing a little dusting last week, I started to notice the obnoxious amount of trays I have.

Then I realized how much better everything looks when corralled onto a tray.

I found this striped Ikea tray at Goodwill for $.50.

Throw a few wine corks and accessories on it 

and it helps take away focus from  the ugly TV components. 

I picked up this glossy black number from the thrift store also.

 This matted silver tray in our master bathroom also came from Goodwill.

Another Goodwill find, this leather tray helps keep our liquor looking classy.

This metal square box, which I use as a tray at times, came from an antique store.

I almost always use some sort of tray when setting up a buffet here on our peninsula.  

Yep, you guessed it, this one came from Goodwill also. 

This basket serves as a tray to hold our TV remotes and a few magazines on the ottoman.

I think this brass beauty is my favorite tray, and most expensive at a whopping $20!  

This one came from an antique store also.

I bought this black tray at Goodwill a while back, 

added some fabric and mod podge and handed it off to a friend. 

This galvanized metal tray came from the Pottery Barn outlet and I use it for all sorts of things. 

Right now, it's holding wooden letters in the center of our activity table.  

The little blue tray came from Ikea and helps keep the boys' toothpaste and toothbrushes looking neat.

If you'r not into thrifting or antiquing, Ikea and Homegoods 

are both great sources for inexpensive trays. 

I think my tray obsession is worse than my lamp obsession.  

Uh oh.  

At least trays can be stacked neatly away.

My lamp stash is starting to take up a lot of room in the storage area.

THE COLOR PURPLE

Apparently all pre-teen girls love the girl color purple, any and all shades of it.

My daughter, who, as of lately, has an opinion about EVERYTHING, 

has requested that we update her room. My first response was "Say what, we just updated your room!".

She then went on to explain that she basically just wants to add a little purple to the mix. 

I can live with that.  

Since I like to control manage things around here, I quickly took matters into my own hands, before she got a hold of some neon purple fuzzy thing with sequins (not that there's anything wrong with neon purple things with sequins). I picked up a couple yards of this fabric earlier in the week.

I'll have some large pillows made similar to these from etsy.

I wasn't sure that little dose of purple was going to satisfy her, so I also picked up a can of this....

I have a few thoughts on where this purple spray paint might be going, 

and I promise to keep you posted.

As a reminder, this is how the first makeover turned out.....

I did not want to repaint the walls or ceiling.

I am also pretty adamant about this chair staying put. 

Even though she is "SO OVER PINK!"

She might be my most difficult client to date. 

Wish me luck!

Have a glorious weekend. 

NEW DINING ROOM DESIGN

Wow,  it's already Wednesday.  How did that happen?

I'm excited to show you a new design plan I've been working on. 

I worked on this client's family room/kitchen last year and it turned out lovely.

This time, they were ready to tackle the dining room and office.

The dining room is getting most of the attention, 

but the office got a new paint color and will get a new window treatment as well.

This is how the room started out....

This is where we are headed.....

My clients wanted a less formal look to their dining room.

The table, rug and buffet stay.

The hutch on top of the buffet went away, as did the chandelier, the drapes and the yellow walls.

I found six amazing Ficks Reed chairs on Craigslist and my client quickly pounced on them.

The seats will be recovered with the Sunbrella fabric.

She picked up two of the wicker dining chairs at the Ballard Design outlet to use as captains chairs.

The walls were painted Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter. 

A new lantern will be added and I gave up my green thrift store lamps for this design.

The sunburst mirror will hang over the buffet flanked by the lamps 

and new casual drapes will be added.

Here's a little peek at some progress.

The client's son graduates High School at the end of May 

so this makeover will be wrapped up soon.

Having a deadline always helps speed things along, doesn't it?

I'm looking forward to sharing the "after" pictures with you soon, 

and hopefully a few more of the design plans I've been working on.

Happy Hump Day to you!

FAVORITE VIEW

So, last week I apologized for being a bad blogger and blamed my "busy" life.

Then I went to church on Sunday and the sermon was about life's rhythm.  

The pastor talked about how everyone is always so busy these days and 

if you're not always busy and proclaiming your busyness to everyone, you appear to be unsuccessful.

However, it's quite the opposite.

Truth be told, successful people understand that rest is just as important as work.

I realize that everyone is busy and simply trying to balance it all. 

I thought long and hard about that sermon and my excuse of being "busy" 

and decided that from now on, I'm going to embrace my "full" life.

This was my favorite view from this past week.

It's my daughter sitting at the dining room table, working on her Science Fair project. 

I was sitting across from her helping her with the project and paying a few bills,

oh and from the looks of the table, I was sipping a glass of wine and doing a little dusting.

I normally like my dining room table to look like this....

but I would much rather my life be "full" of chaos, clutter and commitments.

I do my fair share of resting, I promise. 

You won't normally find me out of bed before 9:30 a.m. on Saturday mornings!

I hope you all have a blessed full weekend.

 

THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS

This is how I started the conversation with my husband.....

Me: I have some good news and some bad news.

Husband: What's the good news?

Me:  We have a new love seat!

Husband: Yes, I know, it's in the garage, right?

Me: Ready for the bad news?

Husband: Sure.

Me: We have another new love seat!

Husband: Silence.....

You might remember that I just bought this love seat a couple of months ago. 

It is still sitting in the garage, awaiting its fate. 

In the meantime, I found this beauty at an estate sale.

I fell in love with the coral/salmon velvet fabric and the simple lines.

It came from a beautiful old estate in Cincinnati and is in perfect condition.

I'm sure I'll be getting a call from TLC to appear on Hoarders any day now.

The love seat that used to sit here, now awaits its fate in the basement.

My upholsterer stopped by yesterday to take a look at the love seat in the garage

to give me an estimate to reupholster it.  

I'll either invest in having it reupholstered and use it in "The Nook" 

or I'll leave it as is and sell it on Craigslist. 

What can I say, I love love seats!

Spill it, what are you hoarding?